Abstract
Cassytha filiformis, a leafless and perennial vine with small scales as a replacement of the leaves is currently being used in the treatment of various disease conditions such as jaundice. Macroscopic/ organoleptic characters, microscopic, chemo-microscopic characters, numerical standards, and elemental analysis were determined from the whole plant of C. filiformis. Findings from this study revealed the presence of some diagnostic microscopical features such as paracytic stomata, unicellular covering trichomes with cystoliths, prismatic calcium oxalate crystals and annular xylem vessels. Quantitative physical constants include moisture contents (5.5 %), ash value (17 %), acid insoluble ash value (1 %), total tannins (27.3 %), swelling index (165 %), water, ethanol and oil extractive indices (20.6, 13.6 and 1.6%, respectively). Trace metals such as Fe (165.4279 ppm), Mn (14.4093 ppm) and Ni (2.7933 ppm) detected in C. filiformis were higher than FAO/WHO (1984) permissible limit for edible plants, While others: Pb (0.0568 ppm), Zn (0.1094 ppm), Cd (0.0103 ppm) and Cu (0.0535 ppm) were found to be within the safety limit. The aim of this work was to study the pharmacognostic, characters, elemental analysis and numerical standard of C. filiformis. Key words: Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS), Rumfar gada, Lauraceae, pharmacognosy.
Highlights
Plants of the Lauraceae are most woody trees and shrubs comprising 32 genera and about 2000 to 2500 species
The fresh and dried aerial parts powdered plant material was used for the determination of numerical standards e.g ash values, extractive values, swellimg index, bitterness value, crude fibre, etc
Stem of C. filiformis is green to yellow, filiform and glabrous
Summary
Plants of the Lauraceae are most woody trees and shrubs comprising 32 genera and about 2000 to 2500 species. An exception is the vining, leafless, parasitic genus, Cassytha (Watson and Dallwitz, 1993). This genus is considered to be unique in the family of Lauraceae as it is a parasite. Cassytha filiformis is a plant used for its various ethnomedical purposes in Nigeria. Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of C. filiformis were found to exhibit significant diuretic activity by causing a marked increase in the Na+ and K+ excretion (Sharma et al, 2009). The fresh and dried aerial parts powdered plant material was used for the determination of numerical standards e.g ash values, extractive values, swellimg index, bitterness value, crude fibre, etc.
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